![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Harker Robotics stormed to a decisive victory alongside alliance partners BioMechs and Dark Matter in the Western Region Robotics Forum’s annual CalGames offseason tournament from Oct. 3-5.
This triumph marks the team’s first time ever winning CalGames and the team’s first event win since 2018. Hosted by Woodside High School, CalGames featured 39 Californian teams.
CalGames began with practice matches on Friday, Oct. 3, and qualification matches took place throughout Saturday and Sunday.
The team won all eight of their qualification matches on Saturday, but a difficult matchup on Sunday resulted in a final qualifying record of 10-1-0 and a ranking of second entering alliance selection.
Harker Robotics selected BioMechs from Richmond High School (ranked fourth) with their first pick and Dark Matter from Santa Teresa High School (ranked 27th) with their second, forming the second-seeded alliance.
The playoffs started smoothly with victories over the seventh- and third-seeded alliances, but a 146-150 loss to the top-ranked alliance saw the team fall to the lower bracket. By defeating Alliance 6 in the lower bracket finals, Harker Robotics’ alliance earned a rematch with the first-seeded alliance in the finals.
Only two matches were needed in the best-of-three finals as Harker Robotics found back-to-back wins to clinch victory.
Design Co-Director Chetana Pramanik (11) explained that practice meetings in the weeks leading up to CalGames helped the drive team get better at operating the robot in an environment where problems could be more easily resolved.
“We had drive practice meetings because we have a new drive team, so we wanted to make sure they were trained and could work well together,” Chetana said. “Also, we were able to fix all the issues that came up so that we wouldn’t have to worry as much about them at the competition.”
Scouting and Strategy Lead Spencer Mo (11) added that understanding what other teams can do played a critical role in formulating effective plans and achieving competitive success.
“Before competitions, we look at film, and then during competitions, we both scout other teams to qualitatively look at their performance and collect data to establish strategies,” Spencer said. “Based on what teams are in our alliance and the opposing alliance, we can figure out how we should perform in a given match. Alliance selection is where we decided what teams we wanted for our playoff alliance, and [our strategy] definitely helped us.”
Frosh Jacob Cao, who scouted various teams throughout the event, found this success especially exciting and looks forward to future events.
“Cheering on the team and watching us score piece after piece and succeeding in our climbs made me really happy,” Jacob said. “Even though sometimes things would break, there was always a team of people working to help fix it. It was really cool to see our bot work well and win.”
The 2025 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) game, REEFSCAPE, challenges competing alliances of three robots to place PVC pipes representing coral on a reef consisting of branching pipes while removing rubber balls representing algae from the reef before climbing hanging metal cages. Each 150-second match begins with a 15-second autonomous period when robots must operate independently and ends with a 20-second endgame, during which robots ascend the cages. The intervening duration typically features robots scoring coral and algae under human control.
Unofficial events like CalGames allow teams to continue competing after the conclusion of the official FRC season, which lasted from kickoff on Jan. 4 to the FIRST Championship on April 19. Harker Robotics will next compete at the offseason event Capital City Classic from Oct. 24-26.
